Control device for shifting brush body carriers on brush manufacturing machines

ABSTRACT

A control device for shifting brush body carriers on brush manufacturing machines, particularly for brush boring and/or brush filling machines, with a pawl mechanism, wherewith a pivoted pawl lever, moved by an eccentric drive, is caused by a control-tape operated actuating element to engage a ratchet wheel which initiates the shifting of the brush body by actuating a drive mechanism.

United States Patent 1191 Schnekenburger etal.

[ June 25, 1974 CONTROL DEVICE FOR SHIFTING BRUSH BODY CARRIERS ON BRUSH MANUFACTURING MACHINES [76] Inventors: Emil Schnekenburger, Bahnhofstr.

5a, 7867 Zell/Wiesental; Rudolf Schnekenburger, Sonnholde 4., 7868 Todtnau, both of Germany [22] Filed: Apr. 23, 1973 [21] App]. No.: 353,714

. [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 22, 1972 Germany 2219935 52 us. 01. 74/125, 74/116 51 Int. Cl. Fl6h 29/00 581 Field 61 Search 74/125, 125.5, 116

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 795,095 7/1905 Benoit et al. 74/125 966,976 8/1910 Zahn 74/125 1,081,988 12/1913 2,933,931 4/1960 3,340,743 9/1967 3,340,744 9/1967 Primary Examiner-Benjamin W. Wyche Assistant Examiner-Wesley S. Ratliff, Jr.

Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Hauke, Gifford, Patalidls & Dumont [5 7] ABSTRACT A control device for shifting brush body carriers on brush manufacturing machines, particularly for brush boring and/or brush filling machines, with a pawl mechanism, wherewith a pivoted pawl lever, moved by an eccentric drive, is caused by a control-tape operated actuating element to engage a ratchet wheel which initiates the shifting of the brush body by actuating a drive mechanism.

12 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures 1 CONTROL DEVICE FOR SHIFTING BRUSH BODY CARRIERS ON BRUSH MANUFACTURING MACHINES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Such control devices, for example, are known from German Pat. No. 961,800 wherein a switch box with a plurality of contact pins is disposed beneath a control tape. This box is periodically lifted up to the control tape where pins which meet openings in the tape contact other pins installed above the control tape and push these into the way of a pawl lever which thus is caused, similar to a ratchet lock, to engage a ratchet wheel and thus drives it. Here there are two pawl levers, driven in opposite directions, which periodically move over the ratchet wheel, thus taking care of both directions of rotation; as the result of the abrupt intrusion of the pawl lever into a tooth of the ratchet wheel, actuated bythe contact pins, it is driven in jerks, and therefore considerable mechanical forces may develop. Also, the control tape is subjected to constant mechanical stress.

Furthermore, a similar device can be derived from German Pat. 1,230,394, in which there are sensor elements which pass transversely over the contro l tape and which, when a sensor pin enters an opening in the 24a, 24b, 28 which reverses the direction of rotation.

This offers the great advantage that the entry of the pawl lever into the ratchet wheel never is the result of a direct mechanical connection between the controlling tape and the pawl mechanism, and that the control tape never need be grazed over by the sensing device, for basically every desired possibility for picking a conro t qrm n an be f and c nvenes! 9, 19 mas ins signals.

Furthermore, it is advantageous that the command which causes the engagement of pawl lever with ratchet wheel is always issued when the pawl lever is at or near one of its dead centers, so that entry takes place en- 5 tirely without any complications. Movement of the controltape, stop the motion of the sensor element and thus cause the pawl lever to make contact with a cam element. Here too, this results in engagement of the pawl lever with a corresponding ratchet wheel and progressive motion thereof. The device described in this patent is complicated in construction and requires several drive mechanisms, in part independent of one another, so that a disadvantage of this device may particularly be noted in that the sensor element is pulled at considerable speed across the then stationary control tape, and, on entry into the ssmr ,srsairsrishta ssq abruptly.This may easily cause destruction of the controltape if this is not made of appropriately resistant material. Also, since engagement of the pawl lever with the ratchet wheel may occur when the periodically reciprocating lever has reached its full speed, substantial mechanical forces develop when the pawl lever impinges directly on the ratchet wheel.

Starting with these known devices, it is the objective of the present invention to create a control device for shifting brush body carriers which is simple and uncomplicated in contruction and with which no severe stresses on either the control tape or the mechanical control elements need be feared.

SUMMARY. OF THE PRESENT INVENTION To solve this problem, the invention starts with a control device of the kind initially designated as known, and, according to the invention, consists in that, for each direction of shift a number of pawl levers 12, 12a, l2b (correspondingto the number of desired lengths of path), each operated by a separate eccentric drive. 3, 4, 5; 6, 6a, 6b; 7, 7a, 7b; are provided, with a corresponding number of assigned ratchet wheels 14, 14a, 14b; and the actuating elements 18 allotted to each pawl lever are disposed at the site of the beginning of pivoting motion, and that the; output shaft .10 for the ratchet wheels 1 4,142i, iah is followed by a likewise tapecontrolled, reversible, mechanically positive clutch ratchet wheel then corresponds to the conversion ratio of the eccentric drive assigned to the respective pawl Thus, there are always several, at least two, ratchet wheels rigid lyrnounted andkeyed onto a drive shaft,

pawl levers are assigned to these ratchet wheels, which levers are operated by eccentric drives with different conversion ratios and normally slide by the teeth of the ratchet wheel, without engaging them. Only one pawl lever at a time is actuated by the control tape and is caused to engage the ratchet wheel allotted to it, moving the output shaft by a predetermined path. The output shaft is connected with a reversible mechanically positive clutch, on the one hand directly and, on the other hand via an interposed gear, in each case with one side of the clutch, so that, on the basis of an additional control signal from the tape, the direction of rotation also is determined. It is possible in this way to dispense with nearly half of the usual control signals on the tape, since the lock mechanism consisting of the ratchet wheel and pawl need always turn in one direction only. Obviously, about one half of the otherwise normally required operating elements which reverse the direction of rotation of the ratchet wheels may be eliminated in this way. Finally, it is possible, since the ratchet wheels always turn in one direction only, so to adjust the shaping of the teeth of the ratchet wheels and the functional edge of the pawl lever to fit one another that the most favorable mechanical conditions will prevail.

Further features and extensions of the invention are the basis of the subordinate claims and are there brought out.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the following the construction and manner of operation of an embodiment of the invention are discussed in greater detail, in the light of the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows the control device according to the invention in a side view; and

FIG. 2 shows the control device of FIG. 1, as a section along line 2-2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT According to the embodiment described, three cams 3, 4 and 5 are keyed to a uniformly driven shaft 2, mounted in a housing 1. The cams 3, 4, 5 are encircled by a ring or loop-like part 6, 6a, 6b of a transfer lever 7, 7a, 7b, so that the prolongation of this lever carries out an essentially up'and-down oscillating motion, the

stroke of which is determined by the eccentricity of the respective cam 3, 4, and 5. The terminal portion of the transfer lever 7, 7a, 7b which, for example, rnay be shglilq- Q1 52 xs tsss yth h.amo st j turn, onanother shaft lth rnounted below shaft 2 in the housing 1. V N

The other terminal portion 11 of the angle lever 9 bears, roughly centrally a freely pivoted pawl lever 12, 10

tive ratchet wheels 14, 14a, 14b, (always in the same direction) is then transferred via gears keyed to the 20 shaft 23 on both sides or other transfer elements to components of a positive, reversible, clutch. This will be discussed in greater detail hereinafter.

It is evident that the terminal portion 8 of' the 'an'gTe' lever 9, becauseof the eccentricity of cam 3, car- 2 ries out a substantially sinusoidal motion, located on the arc of a circle. There are two dead centers, one of which is ,shown in FIG. 1. As the cam 3 turns further in the direction indicated by the arrow, the transfer lever moves upward and the pawl lever 12 swings (as 3 shown in FIG. 1) in the direction of the arrow. The pawl lever 12 is so prestressed by a spring 15 which i a t dto it atthe a l lever 9 th t.. t. ..ks fil a distance from the teeth of the ratchet wheel 14;

however, it can at any time be so pivoted in the direc- 35 tion of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 14, by appropriate mechanical action on its frontal surface 16, that its catch 13 is caused toengage the ratchet wheel 14.

For that purpose actuating elements 17 are disposed at a specific point of the housing wall, whence a func- "tional mechanical combination may be established with a suitably fashioned frontal surface 16 of the pawl lever 12, when it is at upper dead center, said elements 17, in the example cited, consisting of a pistoncontrolled contact element 18. This element 18 is connected with piston by means of a piston rod 19; the piston 20 moves in a cylinder 21. The cylinder 21 is connected with a pressure source via a line 22; thus, by action of the control tape, a pressure medium can be fed to the piston 20 to cause the contact element 18 to move in the direction of the pawl lever 12.

The controlled release of the pressure medium via line 22 from the pressure source (not shown) may be accomplished in any arbitrary manner; for example, electrically operated control valves may be used, which are interposed in line 22 and are actuated by sensors damaged by the sensing process, nor is it otherwise stressed or exposed to wear.

The pressure medium used may, for example, be compressed air, or other hydraulically acting medium.

5 Finally, it is possible to cause the motion of the contact element 18 directly by means of control magnets. The t et f hqrt hgtw tesl and thsss f-fh 9 bs. pawl lever 12 are so fashioned on their surfaces of contact that, on engagement, that is when the contact element 18 exerts a pressure on the pawl lever 12, the catch 13 will remain in the recess in the ratchet wheel 14 in spite of the action of the spring 15, and is then held firmly in place because of the increase in pressure as the cam 3 continues to rotate. As soon as the cam 3 and the interconnected angle lever 9 have reached lower dead center and the pawl lever 12 again begins to move upward, it is released without difficulty from L s. ratchetteeth....

Thus, for every displacement path, a complete system of pawl levers, separate eccentric drive and assigned ratchet wheel is provided, wherewith the ratchet wheels function on a common axis. If a subsequent displacement path is difierent from the preceding one, another system of pawl lever, eccentric drive and ratchet wheel is used, so that perhaps ori rnight be tempted to assume that this would involve too much expense. The reason for this will become apparent as the description proceeds.

It is possible to set the rotary speed of the eccentric drives almost without upper limit, because entry of the pawl lever 12 into its ratchet wheel 14 can take place only at one point, since a separate system is provided for each different displacement path. This point of entry of the pawl lever 12 into the ratchet wheel 14 is set at the point of beginning of its oscillating movement, that is at the point of effective rest, so that engagement takes place in the state of rest (thus the actuating element 18 holds down the head of the pawl lever 12 in the corresponding ratchet wheel 14), and then the initiated movement can be realized at extreme speed. It .is clearly evident that it is possible in this way to operate at a hitherto unattainable speed, and, in addition, to do so almost 5 without the usual mechanical stresses on either the which pick up information from the control tape. Any 60 control tape of the ratchet mechanism. The movement takes place very gently and sinusoidally, entry being made at relative dead center of the eccentric drive position and the displacement movement can t h en be 55 clutch counterparts 24a and 24b. Drive of the clutch counterpart 24b is effected by way of an attached gear 25 which is driven by a gear 26 on the shaft 10. Drive of the clutch counterpart 24a takes place by way of an intermediate, direction-reversing, gear which is dirven by a gear 27, keyed to the shaft 10. Depending on which clutch element is interacting with the central clutch piece 28 which is rigidly keyed to shaft 23, the direction of rotation of the shaft 23 is determined and, with it, that of the keyed output gear 29 which drives a gear 30, connected with aspindle 31 on which, similar to a worm drive, an internally threaded nut 32 moves axially, corresponding to the direction of rotation and attuned to the stroke of of mechanical forces or acceleration, the film is not t h e cams 3, 4, and 5.

The central clutch piece 28 is caused, by axial displacement on the shaft 23, to interact with one of the freely turning clutch counterparts 24a and 24b. This displacement may, for example, take place by means of an element 34, similar to contact element 18 in FIG. 1, which, also controlled by input of a pressure medium, undergoes an axial displacement and, for example, engages the groove 33 in the central clutch piece. As was pointed out above, this involves the axial displacement, and the supply of a pressure medium to control the direction of rotation of the clutch due to axial displacement of the central clutch piece 28, preferably controlled by the same control tape. The element 34 engages the groove 33 with a roller 35, and, as is schematically indicated in FIG. 1, this roller 35 may be borne by a lever 36 which is mounted at 37 and communicates with another compressed air cylinder 38.

Furthermore, the reversing clutch consisting of clutch counterpart 24a, 24b and central clutch piece 28 has thesame number of teeth 39 to assure engagement-as do the ratchet wheels, in order to prevent any errors of transmission. H..-

lt will be understood that, by combining several of the above described examples, it becomes possible to move a table or a brush body carrier in any desired direction, namely with an arbitrary frequency, arbitrary lengths of displacement-L and with arbitrary inclinations, so that, controlled by a single information tape, fabrication of the brush body at extremely high speed is possible, particularly so because (as also discussed above), switching pressures are completely avoided, the motion is accomplished extremely gently and softly because of the use of the dead center position in each case, and yet takes place with rapidly rising speed, and, in addition, the tape may be rea at high speed since it is not necessary for it to be at rest, which is the casewhen sensing is carried out exclusively transversely to the tape.

If pins which move over the tape are used as sensing devices for the control tape, these pins may directly control the supply of pressure medium via line 22 to the actuating cylinder 21, or else they may form electrical contacts with which control signals are generated which control the feed of pressure medium through electrically operated control valves. Another important advantage will be noted in the fact that the reversing gears 29, 30, when simply replaced by gears with a different number of teeth, make possible an extremely precise and closely graduated adjusted path of motion along the worm screw and thus that of the brush body carrier.

We claim:

l. A control device for shifting brush body carriers ,on brush manufacturing machines, particularly for brush boring and/or brush filling machines, with a pawl mechanism, wherewith a pivoted pawl lever, moved by an eccentric drive, is caused by a control-tape operated actuating device to engage a ratchet wheel which initiates the shifting of the brush body carries by actuating a drive mechanism, characterized in that, for each direction of shift a number of pawl levers corresponding to the number of desired lengths of path. each operated by separate eccentric drive are provided with a corresponding number of assigned ratchet wheels and the actuating elements allotted to each pawl lever are disposed at the site of the beginning of pivoted motion, and that the output shaft for the @lsliituh els.isblloyysi alikew s p F that the ratchet wheels are permanently mounted on a first shaft disposed beneath a second shaft Within a housing and that on said first shaft a freely pivoted angle lever is assigned to each ratchet wheel, the

terminal portion of the said angle lever being connected with the transfer lever, with which it carries out a reciprocating sinusoidal motion.

4. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the other part of the angle lever bears the centrally mounted pawl lever, the front part of which is fashioned with a catch and the rear part of which is joined by means of a spring to the angle lever, in such a way that the catch is kept out of contact with the teeth of the ratchet wheel.

5. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the actuating element disposed at the upper dead center position of the pawl lever consists of a contact element driven by a piston and that the piston can be displaced in a cylinder by the introduction of a pressure medium, preferably compressed air, the input of which can be controlled by sensor devices which pick up information from a control tape.

6. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that the control tape is a film and that transport of the film takes place continuously.

7. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that the sensor elements enter into recesses in a film control tape and control the input of said pressure medium into the cylinder directly, or by emitting electrical signals.

'TThmde iciYfording'toclaim 'reharaetet ized in that gears are firmly keyed to the shaft which is turned by only one of the ratchet wheels at a time, by predetermined partial amounts, which, via an intermediate gear and directly, drive the counter-part elements of the reversible clutch, which said elements can be caused selectively to engage positively a central clutch piece keyed firmly to an output shaft. A UTTHe device according to claims, charactrizedin that the reversal of direction of rotation ofthe central clutch piece caused by axial displacement, also can be carried out under pressure medium control, based on information from the film control tape.

10. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that, by means of a clutch output shaft, a spindle can be driven, on which a spindle nut is displaceable, in each case as a function of the different eccentricities of cams of said eccentric drive and controlled by film trolled, reversible, mechanically positive clutch which 

1. A control device for shifting brush body carriers on brush manufacturing machines, particularly for brush boring and/or brush filling machines, with a pawl mechanism, wherewith a pivoted pawl lever, moved by an eccentric drive, is caused by a control-tape operated actuating device to engage a ratchet wheel which initiates the shifting of the brush body carriers by actuating a drive mechanism, characterized in that, for each direction of shift a number of pawl levers corresponding to the number of desired lengths of path, each operated by a separate eccentric drive are provided with a corresponding number of assigned ratchet wheels and the actuating elements alloted to each pawl lever are disposed at the site of the beginning of pivoted motion, and that the output shaft for the ratchet wheels is followed by a likewise tape-controlled, reversible, mechanically positive clutch which reverses the direction of rotation.
 2. A control device as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the eccentric drive consist of cams of different eccentricity, keyed to a shaft driven with uniform speed, each of which is encircled by the ring-like part of a transfer lever.
 3. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the ratchet wheels are permanently mounted on a first shaft disposed beneath a second shaft within a housing and that on said shaft a freely pivoted angle lever is assigned to each ratchet wheel, the terminal portion of the said angle lever being connected with the transfer lever, with which it carries out a reciprocating sinusoidal motion.
 4. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the other part of the angle lever bears the centrally mounted pawl lever, the front part of which is fashioned with a catch and the rear part of which is joined by means of a spring to the angle lever, in such a way that the catch is kept out of contact with the teeth of the ratchet wheel.
 5. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the actuating element disposed at the upper dead center position of the pawl lever consists of a contact element driven by a piston and that the piston can be displaced in a cylinder by the introduction of a pressure medium, preferably compressed air, the input of which can be controlled by sensor devices which pick up information from a control tape.
 6. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that the control tape is a film and that transport of the film takes place continuously.
 7. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that the sensor elements enter into recesses in a film control tape and control the input of said pressure medium into the cylinder directly, or by emitting electrical signals.
 8. The controL device according to claim 1 characterized in that gears are firmly keyed to the shaft which is turned by only one of the ratchet wheels at a time, by predetermined partial amounts, which, via an intermediate gear and directly, drive the counter-part elements of the reversible clutch, which said elements can be caused selectively to engage positively a central clutch piece keyed firmly to an output shaft.
 9. The device according to claim 8, characterized in that the reversal of direction of rotation of the central clutch piece caused by axial displacement, also can be carried out under pressure medium control, based on information from the film control tape.
 10. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that, by means of a clutch output shaft, a spindle can be driven, on which a spindle nut is displaceable, in each case as a function of the different eccentricities of cams of said eccentric drive and controlled by film control tape.
 11. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that, for their lengthwise and transverse displacement and/or tilting, said brush body carriers and/or boring and filling devices are connected with the spindle nut,
 12. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that, for the transfer of rotary motion from a clutch output shaft to a spindle, an interchangeable reversing gear set is provided in order to attain the finest graduations of motion. 